Disqus
Police in New Zealand are seeking a change in the law to compel the mobile operators to archive text messages sent through their networks so that police could study an “audit trail” of messages sent for crime fighting purposes.
Previously New Zealand’s police has been able to go into phone records once they have obtained a search warrant and apparently these have been important in helping solve serious crimes. Police Association president Greg O’Connor denied that there would be any breach of privacy as the police would still need a court order to access the archived messages.
At the moment Vodafone Australia doesn’t store any SMS, and Telecom has said that it plans to stop storing them by the end of this year. New Zealanders send some 640 million text messages per month.
[Via: CellularNews, image from everettpolicema.com]
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
